An 'Instant' Classic

Welcome back to Digital Gravity 💪

Every Friday, we share strategies to help you grow your business with content marketing and reach ‘critical mass’ in the great online game.

This week, Katie shares her take on Instant Pot’s 2023 bankruptcy filing (and what we should learn from it).

Enjoy 👇

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🦸 Is it better to die a hero? 🦸 

By Katie Conover

While cheffing it up in the kitchen last week with my beautiful Instant Pot, I started wondering why I haven’t heard much about the company in a while.

I googled updates, and the first thing to come up was that… it filed for bankruptcy two years ago.

What? Did everyone know about this but me?

What happened to the parents of my most reliable kitchen appliance?

Instant Pot’s (by Instant Brands) revenue in 2020 was $758 million. Then in 2022… $344 million. A 50% loss!

How’d that happen?

Turns out, ‘most reliable’ was the issue! 

Instant Pot’s products were so good and durable that once someone bought one, they were done: no need to update to the next model or buy a new one when the first one breaks. 

Great for the consumer… not too great for the company.

What’s the lesson here?

Make sh*tty products and you’ll last longer? 

Uh. No… Right?

This article about Instant Pot’s bankruptcy is titled, “Why Did Instant Pot—Revered, Cherished, Iconic—Just File for Bankruptcy?”

No company that sells products with planned obsolescence has ever been called Cherished or Iconic. 

These are names only for the true-of-heart companies.

The companies with products that will last a lifetime.

Instant Pot might have nosedived when it comes to revenue, but it still won over the hearts of its customers.

And because of this worldwide love for Instant Pot (by Instant Brands), they were able to finally separate into their own stand-alone company after the bankruptcy, under their own name (Instant Pot Brands)

And on their own, they’re doing pretty frickin’ good. 

They’re still as durable as before. They’re just making more things now.

Like these new Mini Instant Pots in pretty colors and the InstantHeat™ Toaster Oven Line, both released last month.

They’re expanding big time.

The Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 reached number 6 on the “Top Sellers on Amazon List of 2025,” just a couple of days ago.

Talk about worldwide love.

So, the real message here? 

If you want to overcome the odds, you need to own the heart of your customer.

Instant Pot would have never become what it is today without such a great product and such a large fanbase. 

To win over the world, you need to be reliable.

Put away the belief that you need people to keep coming back for more (by any means necessary).

You just need them to keep remembering you.

Give them honesty. Give them high-quality.

And they’ll come back for more with genuine love for what you do.

Be built to last (in every way possible).

—Katie

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